We are told that freshwater crocodiles are pretty harmless unless cornered … but that doesn’t mean we want them joining us for a dip at the local pool!
But that’s what happened in Darwin recently when swimmers got the fright of their lives after spotting a 50-centimetre freshie in the shallow end. Happily, a quick-thinking lifeguard was on hand to scoop up the uninvited guest.
Tim Dupe was holding a swimming boot camp in the suburb of Parap when a member of the public alerted him to the intruder’s presence.
Tim said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the croc but says it was lucky the reptile ‘had a lane to itself’.
“I went down the shallow end and in lane six, right up in the corner, was a little freshwater croc,” he said. “So I grabbed the leaf scoop and scooped it up.”
The croc was taken away by Parks and Wildlife Rangers and released into the wild.
Pranksters are thought to have been behind the bizarre incident.
“It is pretty dry all around the place, so it is not as if there have been any crocs living in here,” said Tim. “Someone must have jumped the fence or got in here and thrown the croc in the pool.”
Ranger Tommy Nichols said it was the third crocodile to turn up in a public pool in the past few years.
“They didn’t get there by themselves. It’s just a stupid thing to do,” he said: “’Certainly, a croc this size isn’t going to hurt anyone, but if it was bigger it could have ended badly.”
